Re: terminate applications

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@attbi.com>]

Marin David Condic wrote:
> Ada should have one of those  instructions or its tough to break into the
 > cruise missile business.

Hmmmm.  I was thinking of an implementation of the "kill -9" idiom that 
did not involve a few hundred pounds of high-explosive.  Something like:

abort; -- the environment task;
delay 3.0;
kill -9;

Of course, I can't express the real semantics in Ada, since the abort of 
the environment task will make all tasks abnormal, then the delay 
starts.  In Ada of course, the event of the timer expiring would never 
occur.  Besides if the abort does work, you don't want to wait the three 
seconds.  Maybe I can express it as an ATC:

select
   delay 3.0;
   OS_Call("kill -9");
then abort
   abort;
end select;

Nope, doesn't work.  The abort will complete when all tasks are 
abnormal.  At that point the delay statement can be aborted and the 
OS_Call never gets made...

-- 

                                                        Robert I. Eachus

�In an ally, considerations of house, clan, planet, race are 
insignificant beside two prime questions, which are: 1. Can he shoot? 2. 
Will he aim at your enemy?� -- from the Laiden novels by Sharon Lee and 
Steve Miller.